Oh, what vast peace this message brought my soul!
I have learned to love the ecstasy of pain.
When the sweat stands upon my flesh, the blood
Throbs in my bursting veins, my twisted muscles
Are cramped with agony, I seem to crawl
Anigh his feet who suffered on the Cross.
PRIOR.
O all transforming Time ! Can this be he,
The iron warrior of a decade since.
The gallant youth of earlier years, whose pranks
And reckless buoyancy of temper flashed
Clear sunshine through my gloom ?
NORDMANN.
I am unchanged
(Save that the spirit of grace has fallen on me).
Urged by one motive through these banished years.
Fed by one hope, awake to realize
One living dream — my long delayed revenge.
You saw the day when Henry Schnetzen's castle
Was razed with fire ?
PRIOR.
I saw it
NORDMANN.
Schnetzen's wife,
Three days a mother, perished.
